README.rdoc

What Ruport Is

It aims to be as lightweight as possible while still providing core support
for data aggregation and manipulation as well as multi-format rendering of
reports.

Ruport provides tools for using a number of data sources, including CSV
files, ActiveRecord models, and raw SQL connections via RubyDBI (through
ruport-util).

Data manipulation is easy as there are standard structures that support
record, table, and grouping operations. These all can be extended to
implement custom behavior as needed.

For common tasks, Ruport provides formatters for CSV, HTML, PDF, and text-
based reports. However, the real power lies in building custom report
controllers and formatters. The base formatting libraries provide a number
of helper functions that will let you build complex reports while
maintaining a DRY and consistent interface.

To get a quick feel for what you can accomplish with Ruport, take a look at
a few simple examples provided on our web site.

Since Ruport's core support is intentionally minimalistic, you may be
looking for some higher level support for specific needs such as graphing,
invoices, report mailing support, etc. For this, you may wish to take a
look at the ruport-util package, which contains some generally useful tools
and libraries to extend Ruport's capabilities.

Installation

To install ruport via rubygems:

sudo gem install ruport

Check to see if it installed properly:

ruby -rubygems -e "require 'ruport'; puts Ruport::VERSION"

If you get an error, please let us know on our mailing list.

Dependencies

Formatting

Ruport relies on PDF::Writer for its formatting support. If you want to
make use of textile helpers, you'll also need RedCloth.

Database interaction

If you wish to use Ruport to report against a rails project, a camping
project, or do standalone acts_as_reportable reports, you'll need
ActiveRecord and the acts_as_reportable gem.

If you want to use Ruport::Query for raw SQL support, you'll need to
install ruport-util, RubyDBI and whatever database drivers you might need.

Resources

Our developers have published a free-content book about all things Ruport,
including complete coverage of acts_as_reportable and some of
ruport-util's features. This book serves as the definitive guide to
Ruport, so all users should become acquainted with it:

http://ruport.github.io

The next best way to get help and make suggestions is the Ruport mailing
list. This software is on the move, so the list is the most reliable way of
getting up to date information.

It also may be worthwhile to join this list if you plan on running edge
versions of Ruport, as this is where we make announcements about major
breakage in trunk.

We are very responsive to contributors, and review every patch we receive
fairly quickly. Most contributors who successfully get a patch or two
applied are given write access to the repositories and invited to join
Ruport's development team. Since we view every user as potential
contributor, this approach works well for us.

So if you want to help out with Ruport, we'll happy accept your
efforts!